Fletcher Smith vs. Shanahans continues

Posted by Mike Florio on December 25, 2010, 10:09 AM EDT

So much for peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

With Christmas here and warmth filling hearts throughout the world, agent Fletcher Smith and father-son Shanahan tag team continue to provide an NFL sideshow that surely has more and more Redskins fans hoping that owner Daniel Snyder will wake up on Monday, January 3 and clean house all over again.

On Friday, Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan tried to drive a wedge between quarterback Donovan McNabb and agent Fletcher Smith by claiming that the content of Smith’s recent statement taking aim at Kyle did not come from Smith’s client.

Among other things, Smith claimed that Kyle Shanahan didn’t appreciate suggestions made by McNabb regarding the offense the Redskins were using, and that the changes McNabb recommended were implemented after McNabb was benched.

“I called Donovan on the phone, mentioned I wanted to have a conversation with him to find out what this was all about,” Kyle Shanahan said. “And when I talked to Donovan [on Thursday], he said he didn’t say any of that.”

This time around, Fletcher responded not with a statement released to multiple outlets but with a traffic grab for SportsBUZZ.com, an athlete-driven pay-for-play website in which we suspect McNabb and/or Smith possess a financial interest.

“Donovan and I talk constantly and have done so with more frequency during this season,” Smith said. “We are absolutely on the same page. I stand by my statement and will reserve any further comments until after I have had a chance to speak, directly, with coach Shanahan.”

In other words, Smith says that Kyle is incorrect at best, lying at worst.

The problem, in our view, comes from McNabb’s desire to have it both ways. He wants to continue to be perceived as a guy who won’t make trouble, but he apparently wants his agent to twist tails on his behalf. Thus, McNabb needs to either ratify or refute the things his agent has said.

HC Shanahan is a joke. His son is a joke. Both are real bad jokes on the Redskin fans.
Both Shanahans would be out of NFL coaching long ago if it was not for QB John Elway. Until the Rdskins fire the Shanahans and get a top flight head coach, they will be an embarrassment to their fans and the NFL.

Now his son is engaging in he said she said publically with McNabbs agent .

His dad botched the Haynesworth situation . No one blamed him as he didn’t bring Haynesworth to DC . Instead of eliminating the problem he let it fester for 12 weeks of the season cuasing a huge distraction to a team trying to find it’s identity .

No one denys Mike Shanahan can coach . He’s proven that . His son not so much but maybe he can . However giving Mike Shanahan total control of the Redskins was another poor move by Dan Snyder.
Mike Shanahan made the trade to bring McNabb to DC . Now he and his son are acting like kids .
They coulda benched McNabb and not caused all this turmoil .Why engage in public agruements with an agent ? Don’t they have more important things to do ? Judging from thier record they need to focuson winning some football games . They have also damaged their leverage in terms of trading McNabb . McNabb can also cause them some problems if he doesn’t agree to report to the team that trades for him .

If I was a Skins fan I would be ery concerned about how Shanahan is running thing in DC .DO you really want him making decisions on a top 10 pick , with no one to stop or question him ?

This year vindicates a lot of the negative feelings I’ve held about Shanahan for a long time. I’m a lifetime Raiders fan, and he played the same stupid games when he was our coach. He’s on a hell of a roll now!

Sorry, after seeing mcnabb play this season I defer to the Shanahans. If mcnabb is upset about being benched he shouldn’t have sucked. Rex outplayed his ass big time last week and no doubt gives the skins the best chance to win.

And yes, mcnabb does want it both ways as he has his entire career. There is a reason philly dumped him on the skins………….

McNabb can’t say what he really wants ever because he hates conflict. This is why TO was jettisoned from Philly. McNabb couldn’t stand up to the organization for the guy he lobbied the team to bring in. I’m not a fan of how TO behaved but McNabb never really took any kind of stand.

He loves playing the victim and martyr and has an elephant’s memory when it comes to remembering any perceived slights or disrespect. Perpetually insecure, he constantly feels he he has to manage and protect his image and legacy. Donovan McNabb reminds me of a couple of my ex-gf’s.

dan snyder has nothing to do with this for all you idiots that think he does. this is mike shanahan and bruce allen taking over for years of crap in DC under VINNY CERRATO, who never gets any blame for this mess.

No, this is not Mike Shanahan’s team. He brought in some new guys, and tried to lean on Mcnabb, and it hasnt panned out. Hes still left with a bunch of garbage from Cerrato, aka haynesworth for example.

Mcnabb has played medicore, needs to stop being a baby, and just play better. Hes a class guy, but as a skins fan, he was not good this season and has missed a lot of throws.

I’ve been a Skins fan since I could walk . . . had to wear #43 in honor of Larry Brown or I wouldn’t play sandlot with the fellas. Shanahan is more of a “dictator” than a coach . . . trying to prove to everyone he’s the boss. Instead of getting into a cat fight with McNabb and Haynesworth, a real coach would have designed his offensive and defensive schemes around the only two playmakers he had. Put us out of misery and send Shanahan and his son back to where they came from.

[1] He was know for his “Passive-Agressive” comments – classic being the Arizona NFC Title Game choke. “Well, when I left the game, we had the lead – and then the defense gave it up.” He called out the young players last year when it was clear that his problems were the same problems that he had since coming into the league – low throws, inaccurate throws, no touch on his passes, conditioning, being too quick to check down to the underneath receiver than risk an interception.

[2] He lets others speak for him – Fletcher Smith, his mommy and daddy. The type of leader you want on your team? Oh – he is the leader – because EVERY single interview, press conference, article – contained those words – “I’m the leader of this team.”

[3] The benching – my SINGLE FAVORITE DONOVAN moment. He gets benched in the Ravens’ game for Kevin Kolb (oh – he was also upset we drafted him too). Why did he get benched? He stunk! Then the Eagles had to pay him a FINANCIAL APOLOGY because he was upset? Give me a break!

Over on the Redskins board, some fans want to hold on to him so they can get draft picks. Are you kidding me? He will now have been dumped by Andy Reid and Mike Shanahan – two pretty good football minds. No team is going to give up anything for him. They know the Redskins will release him rather than pay that contract. Maybe a wildcard – aka Vikings, Cardinals or Raiders – will take a run at him. But I think he will be released after the Super Bowl.

Oh – one more thing – all those Pro Bowl appearances – how many were because players backed out and he was the 4th alternate? That research to follow…

McNabb is an odd sort of dude, but rarely would I consider him someone to play a bunch of games.
The more I see out of DC, the more Kyle Shannahan gives me the willies. With so many stupid thing being done my the Shanahans in the last 8 weeks, I am beginning to wonder what the true intentions are for them.
It seems as though either The Shanny’s have gone completely off the deep end or they are trying to force Snider to fire them.
The only redeeming item out of this is that I see no way any franchise would hire Kyle as their head coach. He has shown such poor leadership and professionalism that he has now a built in lack of respect.

Nepotism sucks. No matter how bad Kyle does, he ain’t going nowhere, because, surprise, his daddy is the coach. As a business owner, I would NEVER hire a relative. Creates way to many problems, and people within the business just resent it. I’m sure the players just look at Kyle with no respect and say, “you’re only here because your daddy is coach.” No wonder the team has quit.

Of course, the media won’t point out this fatal flaw. The media are Shanahan apologists.

Kyle will probably end up like Don Shula’s son. Fail in the NFL and end up running steak house.

Don’t get confused, McNabb approves of everything Fletcher Smith is saying and doing. He’ll sit back, play the passive-aggressive game AGAIN (for instance deriding the play calling out of one side of his mouth while denying the comments out of the other side), then claim to be the “classy” guy while instructing his agent to stir up trouble on his behalf. The guy is a prima donna and a snake, and at this point in his career he just isn’t worth it.

ONLY Eagles fans (like the ones above)and a few other fans understand what a whiny, passive-aggressive, martyrlike, overrated douche McNabb really is. I have never ever…. not even with Favre who actually has some critics… seen almost 100% of media completely blind to exactly what a player is.
It’s incomprehensible.